Day 3: Tues., July 14, 3–5PMNetworking and CollaborationNew media tools seem to make remote working and networking easier, but do they facilitate curating? How is the time-frame of collaboration­—between artists and curators or producers, or between the art and its audience—different when adopting open source methodologies (such as iterative or modular methods, sometimes called bootstrapping)? Discussions of the different shapes of collaboration and the tried and tested “rules” of good collaboration were ascertained.Guests: Amanda McDonald Crowley (Executive Director, Eyebeam) ; Patrick Lichty (Curator, Artist).Eyebeam respondent: Jon Cohrs (Resident, Eyebeam).Videography: Rus Garofalo

Day 5: Tues., July 21, 2009Evaulation and Audience EngagementThe last session of the curatorial masterclass series asked, who is participating in open curatorial projects? Why? How do we know what they’re getting out of it? What can be learned from the revisions/lifelines used in open source software generation and how can that way of thinking be applied to consideration of the “lifeline” of a curatorial project? What are other evaluation strategies that can be applied to curating, such as comment boxes or feedback forms? Obvious and proposed benchmarks of success were interrogated.Guests: Anne Barlow (Executive Director, Art in General); Hans Bernhard (Artist, Ubermorgen.com).Eyebeam respondent: Stephen Duncombe (Research Associate, Eyebeam) Videography: Rus Garofalo

Day 4: Thur., July 16, 2009Curating in the public domainCurating is often a private activity with a very public outcome, but recent hype about the term in relation to “filtering” online content (from videos and photos to tweets and urls) have made “curating” something people now think of as a very public process. What can we learn from public art models of curatorial practice? How do we cater for passerby audiences? What are the lessons to be learned from open submission projects online and offline? The ideal conditions for creating a platform for participation were dreamt up.Guest: Steve Dietz (Curator).Eyebeam respondent: Amanda McDonald Crowely (Eyebeam, Exectutive Director), Taeyoon Choi (Eyebeam Alumni Resident Artist) Videography: Rus Garofalo

Day 2: Thur., July 9, 2009Publication and DocumentationAs part of Fair Use Day, we considered some of the practical and legal issues concerning reproduction, particularly as it applies to issues of curating participatory and time-based art forms or art which takes place in the public domain. Can publishing be a documentation strategy for creating and curating ephemeral work, or work that is based on conversations or actions? What happens when the art and its documentation are the same thing, as in the case of maps? Release strategies used by curators working with emergent new media forms was rigorously compared.Guests: Lize Mogel (Artist/Curator).Eyebeam respondant: Rebecca Cittadini (Communications and Marketing Manager, Eyebeam).Videography: Rus Garofalo

Day 1: Tues., July 7, 3–5PMWhat open source is and what it means for artHow do practices prevalent in the open source community match up against curatorial paradigms in the visual arts? What is the difference between curatorial openness, working in the public domain or releasing work under a public license? How can we learn about curating and commissioning via platforms which engage audiences or encourage participation? Defining useful metaphors and discarding hyperbolic buzzwords was encouraged.Guests: Curator, Scott Burnham (Creative Director, Montreal Biennial 2009); Dominic Smith (co-founder, Polytechnic, UK).Eyebeam respondant: Fred Benenson (Research Associate, Eyebeam; Product Manager, Creative Commons). Videography: Rus Garofalo

Patrick Lichty's "Homily to Kennedy", given at Summer School @ Night at Eyebeam NYC, July 16, 2009, is online at the Furtherfield Blog - shared space for personal reflection on media art practice. http://blog.furtherfield.org/?q=node/286

Summer School @ NightA series of free evening lectures open to the public led by hosts from Eyebeam’s Summer School program and friends of Eyebeam. No registration necessary.

All events were on Thursdays, from 6:30–8:30PM at Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St., NYC.

SCHEDULE:Thurs., July 2, 6:30–8:30PM | WATCH VIDEOA mind shredding evening with the College of Tactical Culture, hosted by Eyebeam senior fellow Steve Lambert and Eyebeam research associate Stephen Duncombe. Lambert and Duncombe discussed tools and techniques in creative activism and the work happening at their new College.